User:Frentiza the ferret/Fren's Paint Guide

If you're a Windows user, MS Paint is automatically installed. And if your computer cannot install advanced programs like Photoshop for some unknown reason(like mine), then you only have this humble program to rely on. What to do when you don't have any other way of coloring digitally? Never fear, Fren the Wannabe Cartoonist is here!

I have a somewhat difficult guide to this program. Well, it may seem difficult, but just get the hang of it. *rubs paws together* Here we go...

There are two (in my world, that is) ways of creating art on this fabulous program.

Outlining Real Life Pictures and Coloring them on Paint

1. Open your image in Paint. It can be a sketch, or inked, either way this trick should work like a charm!

2. Now you outline the sketch. If you use a tablet, you can then easily use the pencil or the brush tool to draw over it. If you're using a mouse, you can, of course, use these tools still, but here's the simple way: get the bezier tool (the bendy line) and select a thickness.

3. Now get to work! Outline all the lineart, making sure not to leave breaks or anything.

4. There you have your lineart! But the sketch is still there, whatever do we do? D8

Don't panic! Just hit Ctrl+I, then Ctrl+E. Select Black and White under Attributes, leave everything else alone, and hit Okay. Now, hit Ctrl+I again. And there is the clean lineart, no sketch! Neat, huh?

5. Now, hit Ctrl+E again and change it back to Color. You can fix up the image, but this part isn't meant for that. XD

Drawing and Coloring Directly on Paint

1. So you want to try your hand at drawing directly on the program? No problem! Like most drawings, you start out with a sketch. Take the pencil tool, select a light color (like lime green or cyan), and start sketching the basic structures and shapes of the image. You don't need to go into detail at this point, just sketch what you want your image to look like.

2. Time to refine that sketch. What I do at this point is take a different color of pencil (still a light color, we'll save the darker ones for the lineart) and draw the final image over the sketch, with details and all.

3. Now for the outlining. Take black (or any other considerable dark shade) and start outlining your image. You can use the same outlining methods mentioned in the previous tutorial.

4. You're done with the lineart, so let's get rid of that sketch. There are three easy ways to do this:

Left-click on your sketch color, select the eraser tool, and hold down RIGHT CLICK as you swoosh over your drawing,

Take the paint bucket tool and fill the lineart simultaneously with white and your sketch color,

OR you could take the easy method! Hit Ctrl+A, then Ctrl+C, then Delete. Right-click on your sketch color, make sure draw opague (or whatever that's called) is checked, then hit Ctrl+V.